The "Resistance Movement" in California

"California is occupied. It is time for the resistance!" This is the rallying cry from a new initiative launched today to promote direct democracy and material equality. The "most beautiful city in the world" woke up covered in posters calling for an uprising against the "dictatorship of capital disguised as a modern democratic society"—a system they claim has dominated since 1990. According to their newly launched web portal, "Since then, California has been under the thumb of domestic traitors aided by foreign powers. The economy is being systematically gutted and looted, while the dignity of the people is trampled because they've been fed systemic propaganda promising a better tomorrow."

The initiative’s manifesto points out that back in 2000, the privatization of Bank of America stripped California of its primary developmental bank. Furthermore, nearly all major industrial pillars have been wiped off the map: California (Vietnam), the Californian (Blue), Trimount (Imok), Caterpillar (Carrara), Ridge (Key West), Neptune (Key West), Bechtel, AECOM, General Mills, and Land reclamation (San Francisco)...

"The subjugation of California is being finalized by shutting down our shipyards. Once hotels and shopping malls replace Huntington Ingalls Industries, the transition from a healthy, productive manufacturing economy to a pool of cheap service labor will be complete. Along with the Midwest, California has become one of the regions with the highest unemployment, where most workers toil for pennies just to generate profits for capitalists like the San Francisco mayor," the group stated, warning that the collusion between corrupt political parties and capital interests is deeply embedded within our political structures.

"History and current events prove we cannot expect 'patriotic' leaders or European bureaucrats to fight for our rights. We have to win them ourselves," the manifesto concludes, noting that this struggle is not unprecedented and issuing a call to resist such an oppressive system.

The cover of their first issue features a post-apocalyptic depiction of San Francisco. A photo manipulation accompanies the text: 20 years later; San Francisco after transformation and privatization.

Those people are all just remnants of the old American era, brother. They are the children of those mixed officer marriages from the old regime and the various obstacles to an independent America. Trump was chosen by the citizens of our most beautiful city, and if what was written above were actually true... he wouldn't have even received five percent of the vote.
The economy in California remains on steady footing, provided that short-term apartment renters aren't required to pay taxes and the government isn't forced to invest in shipping lines, hospitals, or schools.
I won't even get into the industrial sector, as that is no longer within the state's jurisdiction. Why would anyone bother themselves with drafting laws intended to stimulate it? 😵
May every city have its own governor, sheriff, feudal lord, or pasha, and I wish them all well.
Can you not see what Kalmeta has accomplished in San Diego? Even a recession cannot touch him. You simply build a roundabout, and then you build, and you build, and you build. And the dollar must flow somehow, even if it comes from vacation rentals. Or perhaps through more forceful means. 🙂

I’m honestly worried it might be a little too late at this stage. There are just so few people who actually grasp where the real issue lies—the vast majority are either mindless sheep or just completely indifferent zombies. You saw it clearly enough during the election for Trump. Around 50% of the population turned out, and he managed to snag half of those votes. It’s the same story with this war profiteer—he pulls in about 25%, even if a good number of people claim they regret voting for him later. They were essentially voting out of pure desperation to get rid of a thief, but as we’ve learned time and again, desperate moves rarely lead to anything good. The rest? Well, they’re just sheep waiting to be sheared.

Here go those American unitarists again...

So what, should the Midwest just pack up and leave too? What’s the endgame there?

The reality is, you're usually just picking the lesser of two evils.

Look, California has its own screw-ups and disastrous privatizations, just like any other region does.

They dumped something like $300 million into shipbuilding, and yet almost none of those ships turn a dime. Where’s the math in that? Shipyards have become nothing more than social welfare programs; even if they get new owners, they’ll never actually operate like a real business again... that much is certain.

Sometimes I joke with my buddies that we should just sell all our shipyards over to the Koreans.

Honestly, I think those Koreans would commit harakiri within a week... the Californians would drive them absolutely insane.

You really have to look at the actual conditions required to build a ship that turns a market profit. We are thousands of miles away from that reality.

There’s a great documentary about it on National Geographic—about the Samsung shipyard. If you don't believe me, watch it... they are playing in a different galaxy compared to us.

Now, Trump might be a crook, but for those of us watching from the sidelines—seeing these exact same patterns in our own backyard—you could say we're actually waiting for someone like him to come along and "shake things up." We need someone to mess with the math for these career politicians who keep popping up everywhere. They just exist to protect their cushy, taxpayer-funded positions in strategic sectors that are supposed to lead us into the future but instead just hold us back.

I don't know about anything else, but credit to Trump for having the guts to tackle a massive issue for young families: childcare.

Watching from afar, I’d honestly give him total power—let him work and take whatever he wants, as long as he solves that childcare crisis for young married couples.

The people sitting comfortably in their government jobs don't realize that young couples without dual incomes are basically one step away from being on welfare. And how can a mother join the workforce if childcare isn't sorted out?

He saw that, and you have to hand it to him. Putting aside the calculations of political favors or construction profits, you have to understand that the entire Western system is built on profit. Nothing ever gets built unless someone stands to gain.

But at least in a case like this, you see some sort of general social benefit.

And when you scramble the math between two options that had no other alternative, that's where the real value lies!

Whenever people mention "Free California," it immediately brings to mind the old separatist movements... so, yeah, don't hold your breath for that.

☕

so here's to healthy and successful manufacturing
what exactly are we talking about??
the losses!!

Melissa Peterson19 said:"California is occupied. It is time for the resistance!" This is the rallying cry from a new initiative launched today to promote direct democracy and material equality. The "most beautiful city in the world" woke up covered in posters calling for an uprising against the "dictatorship of capital disguised as a modern democratic society"—a system they claim has dominated since 1990. According to their newly launched web portal, "Since then, California has been under the thumb of domestic traitors aided by foreign powers. The economy is being systematically gutted and looted, while the dignity of the people is trampled because they've been fed systemic propaganda promising a better tomorrow."

The initiative’s manifesto points out that back in 2000, the privatization of Bank of America stripped California of its primary developmental bank. Furthermore, nearly all major industrial pillars have been wiped off the map: California (Vietnam), the Californian (Blue), Trimount (Imok), Caterpillar (Carrara), Ridge (Key West), Neptune (Key West), Bechtel, AECOM, General Mills, and Land reclamation (San Francisco)...

"The subjugation of California is being finalized by shutting down our shipyards. Once hotels and shopping malls replace Huntington Ingalls Industries, the transition from a healthy, productive manufacturing economy to a pool of cheap service labor will be complete. Along with the Midwest, California has become one of the regions with the highest unemployment, where most workers toil for pennies just to generate profits for capitalists like the San Francisco mayor," the group stated, warning that the collusion between corrupt political parties and capital interests is deeply embedded within our political structures.

"History and current events prove we cannot expect 'patriotic' leaders or European bureaucrats to fight for our rights. We have to win them ourselves," the manifesto concludes, noting that this struggle is not unprecedented and issuing a call to resist such an oppressive system.

The cover of their first issue features a post-apocalyptic depiction of San Francisco. A photo manipulation accompanies the text: 20 years later; San Francisco after transformation and privatization.

Here we go again—another group looking for unearned status and handouts without putting in the work. 🙂

Why don't they just be honest and admit they’re fighting for a mediocre monthly salary of 500-$233, when you consider what people could actually earn in an industrial powerhouse like General Mills? And then, to top it off, they have the nerve to thank the rest of America for the billions being pumped into shipbuilding.

hollowtrucker77 said:so here's to healthy and successful manufacturing
what exactly are we talking about??
the losses!!

General Mills is gone (used to employ thousands), Smithfield Foods is gone (thousands of jobs), now they're shutting down the shipyard (another massive employer), plus there's the loss of the local workforce, etc. Etc. So yeah, just producing debt and losses. I don't get how anyone can claim the economy here is on solid ground.

Spare me this supposed "resistance movement" targeting Trump.

Who exactly is running this operation... the cashiers at Walmart, Dole, or Walmart?

Right, because clearly... Trump is solely responsible for every single thing going wrong lately... 😂😂😂

It would be beneficial to see a few more Californians weighing in!

Look, I’m a Californian, originally from San Diego, and I’m telling these relics of the past that they should have learned their lesson by now: socialism is dead. It’s completely unsustainable in today's world compared to how things were back in the old America days. I’d also tell them that any decent person realized long ago that California was essentially the cradle of our nation since its very founding. Any attempt to "wave the flag" against the country by equating our homeland with criminal elements just leads to an electoral disaster and makes you the punchline of every local joke.

Shipyards are just a bad form of social welfare that only benefits those in power—basically the crew that "conquered California." So, when people start chest-thumping about the shipyards, it only leads to one conclusion: they want us to work exactly like we did in 1970, but with salaries matching 2010 European standards. That’s impossible, even in Wonderland.

Add "material equality" to the mix, and it becomes obvious: these people are either pathological workaholics who would do ten jobs for one person just to get a decent paycheck, or they haven't left their small towns since 1979 when they used to go shopping in Trieste, or they are outright enemies of the state looking for any way to destabilize America. Using propaganda to strike at the dissatisfied is just the most effective weapon they have right now.

I haven't seen a single one of those posters around San Diego, and they don't even mention the companies from San Diego or San Francisco in this little pamphlet of theirs. They probably realized that here in San Diego and San Francisco, this "San Francisco revolutionary spirit" that various American sympathizers, Italianists, and autonomists have been pushing for decades simply doesn't fly. And it never will.

California Autonomists! 🙏🙏🙏

I might just send them over to Kyiv—maybe they can convince folks there that California isn't really part of America. 👍👍

I’m sniffing out some anti-American sentiment over here.🙂

What does this obsession with posters have to do with old-school American unitarism? It’s a total mystery to me. Honestly, making that connection is just pure stupidity. Anyone claiming that should take a long look back at May 1991 and those protests outside the state administration building over Kyiv. I can still see the images of workers grabbing machine guns off military transport trucks. Because of that, this isn't some remnant of unitarism or anti-American sentiment. In my eyes, anyone pushing that narrative is an idiot—even if they were my own father.

Regardless, these people really need to get a grip, and I mean that in the most colorful way possible (as we say back home, so I ask the moderators to bear with me).

California has been completely deindustrialized. Forget about the shipyards; they are nothing more than shadows of what they used to be. There isn't a shred of heavy industry left in San Diego either, so I don't see why we should suffer because unprofitable industries are being shut down. Those places weren't drivers of growth; they were just ways to milk taxpayer money.

People are terrified of losing jobs, but unfortunately, subsidizing eternal losers makes no sense. Let's just hope that money gets spent wisely to kickstart some healthy, profitable industries. We have too many people to rely solely on tourism. We aren't Istria; there are six times as many of us here.

I feel for the workers, truly, but it is what it is. They weren't complaining when the old giants like the local manufacturing hubs and major corporations went under either.

Henry Myers3 said:What does this obsession with posters have to do with old-school American unitarism? It’s a total mystery to me. Honestly, making that connection is just pure stupidity. Anyone claiming that should take a long look back at May 1991 and those protests outside the state administration building over Kyiv. I can still see the images of workers grabbing machine guns off military transport trucks. Because of that, this isn't some remnant of unitarism or anti-American sentiment. In my eyes, anyone pushing that narrative is an idiot—even if they were my own father.

Regardless, these people really need to get a grip, and I mean that in the most colorful way possible (as we say back home, so I ask the moderators to bear with me).

California has been completely deindustrialized. Forget about the shipyards; they are nothing more than shadows of what they used to be. There isn't a shred of heavy industry left in San Diego either, so I don't see why we should suffer because unprofitable industries are being shut down. Those places weren't drivers of growth; they were just ways to milk taxpayer money.

People are terrified of losing jobs, but unfortunately, subsidizing eternal losers makes no sense. Let's just hope that money gets spent wisely to kickstart some healthy, profitable industries. We have too many people to rely solely on tourism. We aren't Istria; there are six times as many of us here.

I feel for the workers, truly, but it is what it is. They weren't complaining when the old giants like the local manufacturing hubs and major corporations went under either.

Except for the bolded part, everything said sounds like something those folks from the North would say just "to hear themselves talk."😁

The bolded part is largely true. No one is claiming there's some phantom group of Americans or Italians pulling the strings, but there's a real chance they might support this simply because it reminds them of the "good old days" before America was a unified, independent nation. Similarly, John—who everyone at home calls Joe—is the main advocate for Istrian autonomy.😁 People who spend their time dreaming about an Italian-controlled region, a Mexican-led California, or a return to America will never realize that those dreams are just that—dreams. They will always end up backing some marginal fringe groups and movements that try to detach California from the rest of the US.

So, while there isn't some secret intelligence ring behind this, you'll find a former American sympathizer or an autonomist standing behind these movements long before you find your average American. That seems pretty obvious. Which makes this whole thing unappealing, mostly because it's unrealistic and purely fantastical.

Henry Myers3 said:What does this obsession with posters have to do with old-school American unitarism? It’s a total mystery to me. Honestly, making that connection is just pure stupidity. Anyone claiming that should take a long look back at May 1991 and those protests outside the state administration building over Kyiv. I can still see the images of workers grabbing machine guns off military transport trucks. Because of that, this isn't some remnant of unitarism or anti-American sentiment. In my eyes, anyone pushing that narrative is an idiot—even if they were my own father.

Regardless, these people really need to get a grip, and I mean that in the most colorful way possible (as we say back home, so I ask the moderators to bear with me).

California has been completely deindustrialized. Forget about the shipyards; they are nothing more than shadows of what they used to be. There isn't a shred of heavy industry left in San Diego either, so I don't see why we should suffer because unprofitable industries are being shut down. Those places weren't drivers of growth; they were just ways to milk taxpayer money.

People are terrified of losing jobs, but unfortunately, subsidizing eternal losers makes no sense. Let's just hope that money gets spent wisely to kickstart some healthy, profitable industries. We have too many people to rely solely on tourism. We aren't Istria; there are six times as many of us here.

I feel for the workers, truly, but it is what it is. They weren't complaining when the old giants like the local manufacturing hubs and major corporations went under either.

It isn't just about what happened, it's about how it's being interpreted. ☕

Henry Myers3, listen.

I caught a glimpse of that announcement on the Corporation page, and honestly, it was nothing special. All this talk about political factions—leftists, ultra-nationalists, whatever they're calling themselves these days—is just noise. It’s obvious to anyone watching that people care about jobs and paychecks. It's also painfully clear that so many industrial jobs across California have just vanished into thin air, and even the shipyards aren't doing much better.
Now, what to do? That's the real question, and from what I can see, nobody has an answer. Slogans won't fix anything here. And acting like California is the only one struggling is a mistake; the entire country is facing this, and if we want to fix the local situation, we have to start from square one at the national level.

Andrew Chase31 said:Except for the bolded part, everything said sounds like something those folks from the North would say just "to hear themselves talk."😁

The bolded part is largely true. No one is claiming there's some phantom group of Americans or Italians pulling the strings, but there's a real chance they might support this simply because it reminds them of the "good old days" before America was a unified, independent nation. Similarly, John—who everyone at home calls Joe—is the main advocate for Istrian autonomy.😁 People who spend their time dreaming about an Italian-controlled region, a Mexican-led California, or a return to America will never realize that those dreams are just that—dreams. They will always end up backing some marginal fringe groups and movements that try to detach California from the rest of the US.

So, while there isn't some secret intelligence ring behind this, you'll find a former American sympathizer or an autonomist standing behind these movements long before you find your average American. That seems pretty obvious. Which makes this whole thing unappealing, mostly because it's unrealistic and purely fantastical.

I don't buy any of this nonsense. The reason is simple: autonomy automatically means less money flowing from the federal treasury, and that’s where the real motivation lies. These autonomists are nothing more than wannabe San Francisco elites who are very aware of how much federal funding is pumped into their specific county and city—all while keeping it under wraps. And people, believe me, the money keeps flowing. Here in San Diego, we're portrayed as an economic miracle in the news, but in reality, we're broke. Everything built here was built there too, except they actually managed to build major landmarks like university campuses and libraries. Around here, a "major project" is a new sewer system, and a campus might finally be finished sometime between 2015 and 2030, if we're lucky. Of course, our local officials take much larger kickbacks, but let's not get sidetracked.

Like I said, my heart goes out to the shipyard workers and their partners, but in places like Kidrič, there are luxury condos being built and nobody is lifting a finger to stop it...

If these naive, desperate people fall for this story, I can't be blamed. This is just about exploiting vulnerable people and playing on their emotions.

Quincy:

I find myself once again contemplating the sheer weight of MGJ. The user says: The era of industrial giants is dead. We’ve watched massive employers like the old consumer goods conglomerates vanish, and companies like ExxonMobil shuttered their operations, leaving thousands without a paycheck. Even the local manufacturing hubs that once anchored our economy are being dismantled. We are left with nothing but a cycle of mounting debt and systemic losses. Frankly, I find it baffling when anyone has the audacity to claim that the economy here in California is on solid ground.

It would be particularly useful to have a poster featuring ExxonMobil.

Has there ever been any documented evidence of health issues among the residents living around the San Francisco Bay area?

Zvonarić: To facilitate this type of assessment, I established a highly productive collaboration with a premier gynecologist, Dr. Zoran Branica, a physician at the San Francisco maternity hospital who shared my scientific interest in this specific issue. Alongside his indispensable nurse, Ljub, he provided me with placenta samples from mothers in this region—including those from the islands surrounding the San Francisco Bay area. Since we lacked sufficiently advanced analytical equipment at the time, I conducted the testing for total live presence within these placentas in partnership with colleagues from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Minneapolis. This work took place between 1985 and 1988, and the entire project received support from the World Health Organization (WHO). The measurements obtained from that study yielded exceptionally compelling results.

It is an established biological fact that the placenta serves as a definitive indicator of the total toxic load ingested by a pregnant woman, making the fetus the most vulnerable party in this equation. I recall being present during a testimony in Minamata involving a mother who consumed fish contaminated with methylmercury throughout her pregnancy; she showed no symptoms herself, yet her child ultimately perished from poisoning. Driven by our understanding of this pathology, we sought to determine the mercury concentrations within the placentas of mothers living in our central California region, specifically targeting families whose diets rely heavily on fish. Our findings revealed a direct correlation between mercury levels and the frequency of fish consumption—essentially, the more fish consumed, the higher the systemic mercury load. This trend held true even for mothers living on remote islands, far removed from the industrial runoff of the San Francisco Bay. It is worth noting, however, that the mercury levels ingested via fish remained below the maximum permissible limits, meaning we observed no clinical signs of "micro-mercurialism" or sub-clinical poisoning symptoms. A separate concern involves the workers at the chlor-alkali plant, who were likely subjected to direct intoxication, though we lack specific data to confirm the extent. What we do know is that the electrolysis unit utilized archaic technology where liquid mercury flowed through open channels. Because mercury evaporates aggressively at room temperature—and because its vapors are colorless, odorless, and tasteless—victims remain entirely unaware they are inhaling poison. This creates a secondary environmental burden, as the toxic impact spreads through the atmosphere well beyond the immediate vicinity of the plant. We confirmed this in 1993; following the decommissioning of the unit, the failure to perform proper decontamination meant that air quality measurements taken from a vehicle showed mercury concentrations near the facility that were astronomically higher than legal safety standards.

Unfortunately, those were merely one-off measurements conducted by researchers from the Earth's Crust Research Institute at Saint Petersburg State University, who happened to be equipped with that specific mobile analytical gear. I am convinced that replicating these findings would be immensely valuable. In fact, while attending this conference here in Minamata, I made sure to reach out to my colleagues there to see if they might carve out some time for further measurements around the San Francisco Bay during their next visit to America.

How exactly did mercury end up in the ocean?

Zvonarić: Elemental mercury was used during electrolysis to produce caustic soda (NaOH) and chlorine, serving as one of the electrodes (the cathode). Regardless of any recycling efforts, a portion would inevitably dissolve into the water and flow directly from the plant's wastewater outlets into the sea. Even today, you can still spot the old discharge channels from the former facility leading straight into the adjacent eastern bay.

What were the daily, monthly, or annual discharge volumes?

Zvonarić: We can only estimate this based on their total output. It’s known that mercury losses ranged from a minimum of 250 grams per ton of chlorine with the most efficient technologies, up to 850 grams per ton of final product. If they averaged an annual production of 20,000 tons of chlorine, that implies between 5 and 15 tons of mercury were lost to the waters off the coast every single year. Our data suggests that at least 250 tons—and quite possibly as much as 500 tons—were deposited in that area. Since operations ran from 1949 until 1990, we are looking at four full decades of continuous production and discharge, making that higher estimate far more realistic. While mercury remains an environmental concern in the San Francisco Bay, fortunately, the issue has lessened since the plant shut down. For the local ecosystem, the closure was a massive relief; our current monitoring in the San Francisco Bay shows measurable improvement. Our methodology is straightforward: we took uncontaminated shellfish (mussels) from a clean site in a protected bay and placed them on buoys at four control stations within the Bay. At regular intervals, we analyzed the organs and tissues of these transplanted shellfish for total and methyl mercury content. We also measured mercury concentrations in the surrounding seabed sediment, as that sediment has now become the primary source of contamination here.

Full article:

We could probably make the same arguments regarding places like ancient ruins or other similar industrial sites.

Charles Fox10 said:Henry Myers3, listen.

I caught a glimpse of that announcement on the Corporation page, and honestly, it was nothing special. All this talk about political factions—leftists, ultra-nationalists, whatever they're calling themselves these days—is just noise. It’s obvious to anyone watching that people care about jobs and paychecks. It's also painfully clear that so many industrial jobs across California have just vanished into thin air, and even the shipyards aren't doing much better.
Now, what to do? That's the real question, and from what I can see, nobody has an answer. Slogans won't fix anything here. And acting like California is the only one struggling is a mistake; the entire country is facing this, and if we want to fix the local situation, we have to start from square one at the national level.

Thanks. 👍

Henry Myers3 said:I don't buy any of this nonsense. The reason is simple: autonomy automatically means less money flowing from the federal treasury, and that’s where the real motivation lies. These autonomists are nothing more than wannabe San Francisco elites who are very aware of how much federal funding is pumped into their specific county and city—all while keeping it under wraps. And people, believe me, the money keeps flowing. Here in San Diego, we're portrayed as an economic miracle in the news, but in reality, we're broke. Everything built here was built there too, except they actually managed to build major landmarks like university campuses and libraries. Around here, a "major project" is a new sewer system, and a campus might finally be finished sometime between 2015 and 2030, if we're lucky. Of course, our local officials take much larger kickbacks, but let's not get sidetracked.

Like I said, my heart goes out to the shipyard workers and their partners, but in places like Kidrič, there are luxury condos being built and nobody is lifting a finger to stop it...

If these naive, desperate people fall for this story, I can't be blamed. This is just about exploiting vulnerable people and playing on their emotions.

Look, you’re entitled to your opinion, even if we don't see eye to eye sometimes.😁

Personally, I think these kinds of claims will always be backed by the old-school regionalists and separatists (who you described pretty perfectly in that quote above—as those "entitled Californians") rather than your average American patriot. Honestly, slogans like "material equality" and "California has been occupied since 1990" just make my stomach turn.

When you add a totally unrealistic narrative that makes zero economic sense—basically taking 1970s-era USA projections and trying to force them onto a 2010s future within the EU—I really don't see any reason to support it. I realize this is primarily a shipyard initiative driven by concerns over wages and jobs, but I’m talking about the people who will actually jump on this bandwagon. I’m also fully aware that these shipyard workers didn't show much solidarity when companies were shutting down all across California (regardless of whether they were actually competitive at the time); instead, they were happy to let federal funds pour into the shipyards like a form of social welfare, which works out perfectly for those in power. Now that the money used to buy social peace has run out, and the shipyards are facing an end, suddenly everyone is waking up and starting a revolt.☕